The present invention relates to an optical card enabling the optical recording and reproduction of information by the application of laser beams on the information recording surface thereof and to a recording-reproducing apparatus therefor.
With the popularization of a magnetic card and an IC card, an increased interest has been shown in an optical card having a larger capacity than these cards, and various optical cards and apparatuses therefor have been proposed For instance, a read-only optical card and an apparatus therefor are mentioned in the Collection of papers of '85 optical memory symposium. In this apparatus, a light from a light source is applied on an information recording surface, and the information recording surface is imaged on the surface of a CCD line sensor so as to reproduce information. In this kind of reproduction-only apparatus, a light can be applied on a wide information recording area in the direction vertical to the direction of movement of the optical card. This apparatus, therefore, has merits that a precise tracking mechanism is dispensed with, that an optical head can be positioned, with mechanical precision, at the position of a gathering (zone) of a large number of tracks, and that a clock signal for timing for reading information needs to be recorded only in one track in the zone, etc.